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FOR A LABOR PARTY
WHAT IS THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY?
The Democratic Party is the party which is administering the
imperialist war in Vietnam; the party whose liberals either
remained silent or backed Johnson last summer when he offered to
send troops into the Northern ghettos to "keep order"; the party
of the war against the Dominican and Congolese people; the party
of wage freezes; the party which for decades has sheltered and
given comfort to the most vicious Southern racists.
It is the party of political machines which capitalize on the
backward consciousness of the workers; the party of opportunists;
the party of bribery and payoffs.
Who runs the Democratic party? It is the party of the major
industrialists, for whom low wages in the South (to which they
are increasingly directing their investments) are a necessity;
the party of the major banks which are involved in land deals,
hold mortgages on slum housing in the North and South, and make
loans to and have investments in sweatshops and farms which
exploit cheap (mainly black) labor.
These industrialists and bankers therefore find their interests
directly opposed to the needs of black and white workers,
farmers and unemployed; and they run the Democratic Party.
WHAT ARE THE LIBERALS IN THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY?
They are those who want to be elected from liberal working-
class and Negro districts. They therefore formulate their rhetoric
accordingly, while they never challenge the fundamental principles
of the Democratic Party: the preservation ot those conditions
under which capitalism thrives, conditions which mean continued
misery for working people; and the preservation of the interests
of American capital abroad: those in Congress who oppose the
Vietnam war do so from this point of view, and not from the point
of view of the Vietnamese and American working people. These
liberals would preserve American interests by other methods:
their disagreement with Johnson is over how best to preserve
American interests in Southeast Asia. If they have moral
principles, they are subordinate to the needs of capitalism.
CAH WE "REALIGN" THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY?
The Democratic Party rules by deception: it deliberately
permits a wide latitude for disagreement as long as it does not
fundamentally challenge the interests of American capitalism.
It must he flexible if it is to prevent working people from
discovering that it is fundamentally opposed to their interests.
It yields its greatest concessions when a mass movement threatens
to become independent. The Civil Rights Law of 1964, miserable
as it is, was proposed by Kennedy only after the black workers
and unemployed of Birmingham began to struggle outside of the
pacifist and pro-Democratic Party leadership of Martin Luther King.
The Democratic Party, though similar in all essential respects
to the Republican Party, has managed to sell itself to workers,
Negroes, and student radicals as the party of social justice and
progress. If we understand this, however, and if we understand
that the Democratic Party is run with an iron fist by the major
industrialists, bankers and militarists of this country, and that
its liberal elements are permitted such a wide latitude deliberately to deceive and to ensnare us, we cannot "realign" the
Democratic Party. We can only undermine our own movement.
WHERE IS THE MISSISSIPPI FREEDOM DEMOCRATIC PARTY HEADED?
The MFDP aspires to be the legitimate representative of the
national Democratic Party in Mississippi. To our courageous
brothers in the MFDP we can only say: Beware! From the point of
view of black working people, there is nothing legitimate in
the Democratic Party, when that party pretends to represent our
interests it is perpetrating a fraud. In order to claim entry
into the Democratic Party, the MFDP must stand on the fundamental
program of the Democratic Party: the preservation of the conditior
under which capitalism thrives. Those in the leadership who try
to confine the MFDP program within such limits betray the
aspirations of the masses of black working people whom they claim

Though many of these documents are undated, this folder deals exclusively with MFDP elections, and legal actions relating to those elections, from 1963-1966. Five MFDP candidates (Whitley, King, Collins, Guyot, and Hayes) pledge NOT to uphold the segregationist principles of the Democratic Party of Mississippi in their 1966 primary election; they supplement their "Declaration of Independence" with Democratic Party of Mississippi quotations, their own biographical sketches, and a rebuttal of the Party's "Section 3129" which makes candidates pledge to support those primary winners who support segregationist policies. The folder also includes the following: 1966 Mississippi congressional district population and voter registration statistics by race with a notation about which counties now have more African American registered voters than white ones. Clifton Whitley's reply to James O. Eastland on school desegregation. An MFDP pamphlet outlining its 1966 electoral intentions. A list of the Mississippi precincts won or tied by MFDP candidates in the June 7, 1966, primary election. A 1966 fundraising letter from the New York Committee for the MFDP with an explanation of the voting situation in Sen. James Eastland's Sunflower County, Mississippi. The MFDP's Washington office announces a public information service to be handled by Sanford Leigh. A court order to reapportion the Mississippi state legislature. A blank Clay County MFDP membership card. Civil rights worker John Buffington discusses the importance of upcoming elections in Clay County in 1966 and urges increased funding for them given that "the white liberal support of the North has been cut down a lot." Attorney Bronstein's letter and formal legal complaint (Connor v. Johnson) discusses the elimination of three MFDP candidates from the ballot due to an allegedly insufficient number of valid signatures on their electoral petitions. A 1967 legal decision addresses this issue and is followed by another, more limited, complaint by Bronstein. The plaintiffs' reapportionment plan in Connor v. Johnson. A 1967 "Interlocutory Decree" rejecting this reapportionment plan. The State of Mississippi's appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court on Connnor v. Johnson. A draft platform for Ralthus Hayes' 1966 congressional candidacy. Pamphlets and flyers advertising Emma Sander's, Clifton Whitley's, and Dock Drummond's November 1966 congressional candidacies with instructions for new voters. A chart of votes for MFDP candidates in official elections between 1962 and 1966. A 1967 list of MFDP candidates. Clifton v. Johnson asks whether the Voting Rights Act permits the elimination of certain candidates from the ballot. The case of Whitley v. Williams before the U.S. Supreme Court, seeking enforcement of Voting Right Act provisions. The defendants' rebuttal in that case. A SCEF resolution to the Democratic National Convention of 1968, reminding them that state delegations should be representative of all the people in their states. A SNCC press release on African Americans trying to run for municipal offices in Mississippi. A form letter asking for new elections to be held shortly after the Voting Rights Act is passed, as African Americans had not been able to vote in elections before then, so the current elected officials do not represent them. Spartacists call for a Labor Party and urge the MFDP to join it as an alternative to the national Democratic Party which, they say, does not have their interests at heart. Lawrence Guyot informs people that tape recordings are available on the subject of the Congressional Challenge and the Mississippi Freedom Labor Union. A progress report on legal decisions regarding elections in Sunflower County also reveals that an MFDP candidate for public office, Clinton Collier, was badly beaten in Philadelphia, Mississippi. Lawrence Guyot thanks supporters for donating money for a truck to the Clarke County MFDP which can be used to transport people to the courthouse to register to vote. R. L. T. Smith announces his candidacy for office sometime before November 1963. An undated list of MFDP's "new executive committee" members. An MFDP pamphlet called "Issues in 1968 for Mississippi" (land reform; economic rights; peace in Vietnam). Handwritten excerpts from major newspapers and news magazines about Charles Evers' congressional candidacy in a special election. A 1968 memo urges support for five militants at Texas State University who were arrested for inciting a riot and charged with murdering a police officer, though they had no weapons. A list of 12 acts and resolutions "designed to discriminate against Negro candidates or voters" that were passed by the 1966 Mississippi legislature. May 1968 press releases announce that the MFDP will challenge the seating of the Mississippi state delegation at the National Democratic Convention of 1968, and that they will be holding their own county and state conventions. The MFDP's argument in Whitley v. John Bell Williams; the State of Mississippi's rebuttal; the District Court's opinion; notice of the case being appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court. A 1968 MFDP statement of its principles. Lists of potential, actual, and alternate MFDP delegates to the 1968 Democratic National Convention. A summer 1968 press release about the Loyal Democrats of Mississippi's state convention: the Loyal Democrats are described as an umbrella organization embracing the MFDP, the Young Democratic Clubs of Mississippi, Mississippi's NAACP, some teacher and labor organizations, and Masons. The members of the Loyal Democrats' steering committee and a fact sheet on the group are also here. A legal brief filed by the Loyal Democrats, challenging the seating of the delegation from the Democratic Party of Mississippi at the Democratic National Convention of 1968, provides examples of continued official white obstructionism to African American electoral participation following the Voting Rights Act of 1965 and gives the background of the Loyal Democrats. A December 1968 MFDP press release announcing that Channing Emery Phillips ("first Black man in the History of the United States to be nominated for President of the United States") will address the Party's state convention. A 1969 fact sheet on the MFDP. A March 1969 MFDP statement on the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling supporting Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act in the case of Whitley vs. John Bell Williams and several others. Supreme Court Justices' opinions on this and related cases. The 1971 draft platform of the Mississippi State Democratic Party with a list of candidates for local office: this platform is quite a contrast with previous state Democratic Platforms, probably because the majority of white Democrats had become Republicans by this time.

Copyright to these documents belongs to the individuals who created them or the organizations for which they worked. The principal organizations have been defunct for many years and copyright to their unpublished records is uncertain. We share them here strictly for non-profit educational purposes. We have attempted to contact individuals who created personal papers of significant length or importance. Nearly all have generously permitted us to include their work. If you believe that you possess copyright to material included here, please contact us at asklibrary@wisconsinhistory.org. Under the fair use provisions of the U.S. copyright law, teachers and students are free to reproduce any document for nonprofit classroom use. Commercial use of copyright-protected material is generally prohibited.

FOR A LABOR PARTY
WHAT IS THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY?
The Democratic Party is the party which is administering the
imperialist war in Vietnam; the party whose liberals either
remained silent or backed Johnson last summer when he offered to
send troops into the Northern ghettos to "keep order"; the party
of the war against the Dominican and Congolese people; the party
of wage freezes; the party which for decades has sheltered and
given comfort to the most vicious Southern racists.
It is the party of political machines which capitalize on the
backward consciousness of the workers; the party of opportunists;
the party of bribery and payoffs.
Who runs the Democratic party? It is the party of the major
industrialists, for whom low wages in the South (to which they
are increasingly directing their investments) are a necessity;
the party of the major banks which are involved in land deals,
hold mortgages on slum housing in the North and South, and make
loans to and have investments in sweatshops and farms which
exploit cheap (mainly black) labor.
These industrialists and bankers therefore find their interests
directly opposed to the needs of black and white workers,
farmers and unemployed; and they run the Democratic Party.
WHAT ARE THE LIBERALS IN THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY?
They are those who want to be elected from liberal working-
class and Negro districts. They therefore formulate their rhetoric
accordingly, while they never challenge the fundamental principles
of the Democratic Party: the preservation ot those conditions
under which capitalism thrives, conditions which mean continued
misery for working people; and the preservation of the interests
of American capital abroad: those in Congress who oppose the
Vietnam war do so from this point of view, and not from the point
of view of the Vietnamese and American working people. These
liberals would preserve American interests by other methods:
their disagreement with Johnson is over how best to preserve
American interests in Southeast Asia. If they have moral
principles, they are subordinate to the needs of capitalism.
CAH WE "REALIGN" THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY?
The Democratic Party rules by deception: it deliberately
permits a wide latitude for disagreement as long as it does not
fundamentally challenge the interests of American capitalism.
It must he flexible if it is to prevent working people from
discovering that it is fundamentally opposed to their interests.
It yields its greatest concessions when a mass movement threatens
to become independent. The Civil Rights Law of 1964, miserable
as it is, was proposed by Kennedy only after the black workers
and unemployed of Birmingham began to struggle outside of the
pacifist and pro-Democratic Party leadership of Martin Luther King.
The Democratic Party, though similar in all essential respects
to the Republican Party, has managed to sell itself to workers,
Negroes, and student radicals as the party of social justice and
progress. If we understand this, however, and if we understand
that the Democratic Party is run with an iron fist by the major
industrialists, bankers and militarists of this country, and that
its liberal elements are permitted such a wide latitude deliberately to deceive and to ensnare us, we cannot "realign" the
Democratic Party. We can only undermine our own movement.
WHERE IS THE MISSISSIPPI FREEDOM DEMOCRATIC PARTY HEADED?
The MFDP aspires to be the legitimate representative of the
national Democratic Party in Mississippi. To our courageous
brothers in the MFDP we can only say: Beware! From the point of
view of black working people, there is nothing legitimate in
the Democratic Party, when that party pretends to represent our
interests it is perpetrating a fraud. In order to claim entry
into the Democratic Party, the MFDP must stand on the fundamental
program of the Democratic Party: the preservation of the conditior
under which capitalism thrives. Those in the leadership who try
to confine the MFDP program within such limits betray the
aspirations of the masses of black working people whom they claim

Copyright to these documents belongs to the individuals who created them or the organizations for which they worked. The principal organizations have been defunct for many years and copyright to their unpublished records is uncertain. We share them here strictly for non-profit educational purposes. We have attempted to contact individuals who created personal papers of significant length or importance. Nearly all have generously permitted us to include their work. If you believe that you possess copyright to material included here, please contact us at asklibrary@wisconsinhistory.org. Under the fair use provisions of the U.S. copyright law, teachers and students are free to reproduce any document for nonprofit classroom use. Commercial use of copyright-protected material is generally prohibited.